The Mysteries of Life
by animemangaobsessed
Summary: Sakura didn't know the reason she was there. Didn't know anything about this new strange world. This world seemed to lack in the population and trust department and gained in dangerous. But it didn't make much of a difference to her...she just would have to make due until she found a way home...if she found a way home.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura didn't know why she was there. Didn't know anything about this strange world, but she did know that it lacked the population and trust department of hers and gained in the dangerous. But it wasn't much of a difference to her...she'll just have to make due until she found a way home.


	2. Confusion

_**Hello everyone...and to those who have been reading my other story...my apologies...anyway! For this story, it just came out of thin air and I liked it so I rolled with it. Simple as that! I would like critism, but please be...what's the word...mature? errr whatever you know what I'm saying. Just don't crush my little fragile heart.**_

As soon as Sakura opened her emerald green eyes, her body stiffened, and she instantly knew something was wrong.

It was the effect of a mission she was sent on by Tsunade-shisou. She was told that a man was selling children ad women in slave trafficking, and she was to stop it. She was never told the man had former ninja training, and she got careless. She took the place as one of the woman and got close to him. When she was sent in in order to...entertain him-as the man took liberty to train the them before being sold- she expected a quick injection to the neck vein would be the end of it, only to have the man inject _her_ instead. She not only lost her innocence that day, but took a beating: physically and emotionally. For her rookie mistake, the job was twice as hard, and as she came home for her physical (something all ninja coming back form mission were ordered to do seeing as prideful ninjas felt that a hole in their stomach was a mere flesh wound) Tsuande-shisou, putting the pieces together, took pity. It was a "vacation" she said. She planned to give it to her anyway, but might as well start then. It was better off to continue to work at the hospital...it took her mind off things rather than have it run around in her head like a broken record. She trained her ass off after that. Her body knew how to respond to things...like kidnap, which was what she thought was happening now.

The hard floor that had a hint of moistness that soaked into her clothes definitely wasn't her bed. The stench of death, blood, and gore certainly wasn't the freshener she brought from the grocery store. Sakura tensed her muscles. She wasn't tied down, which she found odd. Her strength was legendary along with her master's, so everyone knew that when capturing her, thick chakra ropes were necessary. No one would make such a fatal mistake.

She sent out her chakra for caution...only to pull back hastily in panic.

 _'What is going on?'_ she yelled in her head.

Something was wrong. _Very_ wrong. She could feel it in her bones. There were spots-holes-in her detection. For the first, time in a long time Sakura felt raw fear. It was like something was there but wasn't alive, which should be impossible! Anything living should have chakra, if it didn't...it shouldn't have been noticed in such a way.

The feeling sent a chill down her spine.

 _'Well, sitting here isn't going to get me any answers'_

Not detecting anyone, yet still wary of the chilling feeling from before, Sakura carefully sat up. A sharp crack sounded from her back, and she grunted from both pleasure and pain.

 _'First comes first, where am I?'_

There was a small window in the wooden room she was located in, but her body was now stuck in sitting position. She felt oddly lethargic and drained, which were symptoms of...she scanned her body of her chakra, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion to her almost dangerously low chakra levels. It had been awhile since she suffered from chakra exhaustion; she almost forgot the feeling. Multiple years being a healer, she knew of the consequences of pushing something so essential, and she had a feeling she would need it...wherever the hell she was, so she carefully laid back down, and prayed for Kami to watch over her


	3. Long Way From Home

The next time Sakura gained consciousness, she was relieved that with a quick scan, her chakra was back to its normal levels. And seeing as it was, her body automatically began to heal all the sore muscles and pains her body was in. She sighed in relief, and in a blur, she was suddenly by the lone window in the room. Sakura scanned the perimeter. There was only trees, trees, more trees, and...she squinted at a stumbling figure in the distance, and what she saw had her stumbling back in apprehension. It shouldn't be possible. She swallowed audibly, but took a deep breath and looked again.

The figure was a female -emphasis on the was- telling from the slim figure of what was left and the long black hair, but what had Sakura reeling was not only did it not have an arm, but no jaw nor stomach as well. Her intestines were blackened and hanging limply, swaying to and fro.

If Sakura had a weaker stomach, she would have lost it contents.

 _'What the hell is that? It can't be human'_ , then a sudden thought came to her _'Could it be one of Orochimaru's failed experiments that escaped?'_

Though Orochimaru was dead, there were too many labs and victims to keep count of, some were bound to still be running around. Her eyes narrowed in anger, er emerald eyes almost sparked as if they contained a storm themselves. Her body practically trembled in fury in thought of that man, no matter what, his name never failed to bring up bitter memories, just how much he hurt her family.

Sakura shook her head to banish her train of thought.

She had to get to it in order to put it out od its misery. Normally, she would stop at nothing to heal her patient, even at the expense of her own life, but there was obviously no way for it -her- to live normally. She looked rotted.

Sakura tensed her body in order to jump out the window, but stopped abrupt at the sight of a second, similar figure bumping into the female, causing the two to growl at each other and...Sakura's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and added chakra to her eyes. The scene seemed to zoom in and increased in clarity, and Sakura saw as the -uh- beings sniffed at each other and carried on.

 _'Is it a mating mechanism like drugs or something to tell friend from foe?'_

Sakura shook her head. They growled first, sniffed, then continued. Not really mating behavior.

 _ **'They tell us apart by smell'**_

Sakura nodded at Inner, but continued to watch the things for tell tale signs. She watched them more.

 _ **'But they're not very fast'**_

Again, Sakura nodded and froze when she saw five more emerge. Something wasn't right here. As much as she loathed Orochimaru, even she would admit -to herself- that he was a genius at what he did. Two experiments that failed in the same way was okay, but a hand full like that did not have the mark of Orochimaru.

 _ **'Then where did they come from?'**_

That was the million dollar question

 _ **'And where the hell are we?'**_

That too, because they were obviously a long way from home.


	4. The Dead Had Risen Again

**Sorry for the short chapters. I wrote them in my notebook, so they don't seem so little until I type it, and every time I type it and see it in the hundreds, I cringed because I'm used to writing somewhere in the two thousands. Hopefully this is only because it's only starting out and later on the chapters get longer. Well, until then...enjoy!**

Sakura snapped out of her confused and contemplative stupor and began to prepare, Wherever the hell she was, she at least still had her weapons and materials. There were so many questions she needed answered and sitting here throwing around ideas in her head won't let them answered. She was in new territory, didn't know how she got there, didn't even know where _there_ was.

She was going to have to be more cautious than usual.

Rechecking her things, she took a deep calming breath, gripped the window, and jumped out. She landed in a soundless croach and hopped into a tree, and if it weren't for her proficientcy with her chakra control, she would have not only broken the branch, but fell and gave herself away.

 _'These trees are very malnourished'_

 _ **'You can hardly feel its chakra'**_

Sakura hummed in agreement. She could feel Inner shrug.

 _ **'We'll just adjust our chakra'**_

She did so, but did not forget how _odd_ , for lack of better word, it was. It gave her uneasy feeling.

Sakura traveled for days, watching the things as they roamed and came to realize that not only were an abundance of them, but never caught sight of a regular human, and then she found out why.

Those things feast on them.

She watched in horror as one of them gorged on a body of what looked like a child. Ninja or not, any moral person would be shaken by such a thing. A child murdered so savagely. The shock was so great, she stared at what was left of the body even after the thing lost interest and continued on. She hated when someone loosed a life. She was a _healer_ for Kami's sake!

 _ **'She was gone before we even got here Sakura'**_ Inner provided gently. Inner knew that not only did Sakura hate losing lives, but it brought back old scars.

Sakura knew Inner was right, but that didn't mean another scar wasn't etched on her heart. And what happened next was icing on the cake. A couple hours later, as she watched the girl rise again and the same chilling feeling she had before came back.

That's what the things were.

They were undead people.

Now for the next question.

Where were the actual _people_?


	5. Rekindled Purpose

**God this chapter's word count was the most abysmal. But don't worry, the chapters'll get longer as we progress and we meet the Walking Dead crew**

Sakura was lost. These things were people. _Dead_ people, but as soon as their heart stops, they became these cannibalistic beings.

And right then and there, she knew she wasn't near Konoha, probably not even the land of fire, maybe not even her world because there was not way her Shisou couldn't have known about this, because if she did, either her or Shizune would've been the first to know. Her Shisou shared most -if not all- heavy political happenings. Sakura too another glance at the undead below her tree as they reached out for her and seemed to be attract more at a fast rate.

 _'This is definitely a heavy political happening'_

There were so many unknown points, and though Sakura felt fear, the excitement she felt overlapped greatly.


	6. A Plan

If Sakura had been someone like Naruto, she would have immediately run off without a plan, without at least the basic information, but she wasn't. She was Sakura Haruno, known for not only her medical ability, her strength, and who she trained under, but first and foremost, her _brain_. She was a strategist, so though it made her heart burn in self-loathing at the thought that the longer she waited, the more children and people were dying, she knew that it would do good in the long run, so she sat in that tree and planned, watched, and observed. Summoning pen and paper from one of her scrolls, she wrote down the limited information she had on the undead.

 **THE UNDEAD**

 **-One thing they seem to all have in common is the fact they all seem to have been bitten or scratched**

That theory was quickly shot down when she ventured into a home in order to rest. She had went to check whether she was lucky enough to have running water, and being surrounded by things that were not living, she had no way to sense the undead being in the bathroom. Only quick reflexes had her dodge in time before it took a chunk out of her neck and a flick of her wrist had a kunai impaled in the undead's head. She had long learned that the usual kill shot to the heart didn't defeat them. Though it made sense since their heart had stopped and whatever it was was connected to the brain had them feeling that unquenchable, ravenous hunger.

Undead bites and scratches tended to be obvious like on the arm or neck, though there were a few where they were not in sight, so she killed those specific ones and always found them in a place where clothes hid, such as the stomach, but as she checked over the corpse, she found none, bitten not scratched. She double checked again: lifting the arms, cutting of hair and looking through the scalp, even searching his genitals (she had a healer's mindset at the time, so the man was not a man but a experiment), and she still found none. Though, she did see the slits, on what like to be a teenage boy's, wrist. Sakura leaned back against the bathroom door with a shuddering breath and looked up to the ceiling.

So that was it.

You didn't _have_ to be bitten.

You didn't _have_ to be scratched.

Sakura looked at the body again. It didn't look as rotted or chewed up as the others, probably from being locked in that bathroom. She looked back up to the ceiling.

Whatever this was didn't have to be transferred through bodily fluids.

 _'So not only is the disease transferred through the blood stream, but possible in the air?'_

 _ **'Or food'**_

Sakura nodded. There's that.

 _'Could even be something else'_

Sakura hoped this disease was not airborne because then she was screwed. Food she could handle, she had some food on her, and she always had a good amount of food and chakra pills. There was also the fact that she knew how to make the pills.

 _ **'But if the food is tainted...then...wouldn't the soil?"**_

Sakura froze, then she banged her head on the door once and groaned.

 _'We're screwed, aren't we?'_

 ** _'Very much so'_** Inner sighed

It was quiet for a moment, thoughts running through her head.

 _'I refuse to become one of those things'_

 _ **'If we ever get bitten, or whatever else...kunai to the head?'**_

Sakura nodded.

 _'Kunai to the head'_ she agreed.

Sakura stood up and reached for one of her medical scrolls, pulling out a scringe and two small plastic bags. She stuck a needle in the conjunction between the bisep and the forearm and drew its blood. The medical tool filled gradually with its black liquid and she pulled a piece of skin and dropped it in one of the packets. Sakura knew that if she wanted a better research result, then she should get a live one, but she hadn't had the safe haven nor the utensils for such a thing. She walked outside and picked up some of the soil near the trees and bagged it.

 _'I need to find the nearest hospital'_

 _ **'A map would be a great help right now'**_

 _'Could also help me find out where I am'_

Inner hummed in agreement.

 _ **'We should be able to find one in maybe a hunting store, other houses, or academy. Should probably stack up on kunai. bombs, and other materials'**_

 _'Like steal?'_

Inner shrugged

 _ **'Don't think it matters, Saku-chan. Survival of the fittest, and I don't think these people even have ninja'**_

Sakura nodded solemnly.

 _'We would've run into some by now'_

 _ **'Exactly. We need to help these people, and to do that, we need the information and the materials, and to get those, we're gonna have to steal'**_

 _'Yeah, yeah'_ Sakura sighed in defeat and ran a hand through her rosette hair. She huffed, _'Wow'_

 ** _'What?'_**

 _'If there are not any ninjas, then how do they defend themselves?'_

Inner shrugged

 _ **'I don't know. Maybe fight, but without all the...ninja-ness?'**_

Sakura gave her a deadpan look

 _'Ninja-ness? Really Inner?'_

 _ **'What its not like there's a word for it. Powers is too...tacky'**_

Sakura shook her head at Inner antics.

 _'Alright, so we need to find a weapon's store and a hospital, but we don't know where we are'_

 _ **'Bound to be in one of these houses. Oh! We should pass by a library as well'**_

Sakura nodded.

 _'Get some history in'_

 _ **'And brush up on this world's medical properties. Well, let's get going. Time is of essence.'**_

Sakura rolled her eyes, but got going nonetheless.

As Inner said, Sakura found a map that said she was in Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia. Home of the peaches. Sakura and Inner 's erebrows rose at that.

 _'_ _ **H**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **?**_ _'_

She found another map more in depth about the state itself. It seemed a hospital was on Jordan street, while the weapon's store was fifteen miles in the other direction.

 _'Easy enough'_

 _ **'Let's go'**_

 **-The Undead was attracted to sound ,your smell, and could hear you**

It's mind boggling how the things don't even obtain eyeballs to see with. For smell, the beings were practically bloodhounds. As soon as she was ten feet in the vincity, they were on her, snapping and snarling the whole way. Now _sound_ ,she found out about the sound when she went to the hunter/ weapons' store. To her shock, Georgia did not sell kunai. They sold metal contraptions of all shapes and sizes along with fitting metal cylinders, arches with string attached to its back that was next to unusually long arrows, throwing knives, and other weapons.

 ** _'Sure is a lot of weapons for people to just leave behind'_**

 _'This place is swarmed with the undead, they wouldn't make it out alive. Though one of the undead isn't much of a threat, a whole herd of them would be a different story.'_ Sakura explained as she stored the weapons in her appointed weapons scroll.

 _ **'Well, those things have caught wind of us, so we should probably scat'**_

 _'It's amazing how distinct their smell is for a corpse. Their sight as well-'_

 _ **'This is not time to be fascinated with the things trying to kill us!'**_

 _'Right'_ Sakura blushed and quickly gathered their things.

Though they had a good amount of their own weeping, Inner convinced Sakura to find a spot in order to figure out the new weapons. Said that figuring out the speed, sound, and damage capacity would do them good in the future. They don't necessarily have to use them, but knowing their way around them wouldn't be so bad.

 _ **'Plus, seeing as these things come back after death unless you destroy the brain, a hospital would be one of the top casualties.'**_

 _'We just need to get in and out. The throwing knives should suffice.'_

Inner shook her head

 _ **'We might as well set up base there. This world has different weapons. most likely healing properties and it's a given that their healing** ways **as well. To fit in we'll have to learn them and it makes no sense to go back and forth'**_ Inner shrugged _**'Might as well set up a fort could hold tons of people too'**_

Sakura sighed knowing Inner was right and got to work. She found an isolated part of the woods where only a few undead roamed to which she dispatched. She picked up the smallest contraption though it was half wooden. She held it so that it formed a 90 degree angle, but nothing happened.

 _ **'Maybe it's a type of boomerang?'**_

Sakura shook her head.

 _'Too heavy and metal isn't really made for throwing'_

 _ **'I don't know. Pull that thing.'**_

 _'What thing?'_

 _ **'That curved part in the hoop'**_

Seeing what Inner was talking about she pulled it (it's a trigger if you haven't guessed), but the only thing that happened was a "click" sound.

 _ **'Sounds like it's empty because if that's all it does then it's a pretty useless weapon'**_

 _'What do we put in it then?'_

Inner shrugged, so Sakura just continued to play with the weapon. She pulled another curved part only on top. It jerked and the wooden part came halfway apart and hit her forearm to reveal six holes. A figurative light bulb flashed over there heads. and Sakura summoned the metal cylinders and pulled out six that matched the hole size and popped them in.

 _'Alright. Now let's try again.'_

Sakura clicked it back in place and held it the same way. She pulled the trigger...and nearly blew off her toe.

 _ **'H** o **l** y_ _ **-'**_

Sakura dropped the weapon like it was on fire and backed away quickly, breaths coming out more quickly than usual.

 _ **'Maybe you held it the wrong way?'**_ Inner said after a tense moment. Sakura's eye twitched.

 _'Ya think!'_

Not really wanting to, but knowing she had no choice, she cautiously picked back up the weapon and held it correctly this time. She slowly pulled the trigger once more making sure her legs were far apart and out of its shooting range.

 _ **'The cylinders seem to travel at about 820 mph'**_

Sakura hummed in agreement and fixed her stance to give a more stable foundation. Though her feet were still a bit more apart than necessary as she was still paranoid she'd blow off her toes.

 _ **'Try aiming at the trees'**_

Sakura shifted to a tree a little to the left and just as she was about to pull it again, she saw something moving in her peripheral vision. As she turned to it, a whole herd came into view and all headed in her direction with a determined stagger.

 _'So not only do they have excellent smell and sight...'_

 _ **'but hearing as well'**_

Sakura sighed and quickly made haste.


	7. One Burden For Another

_**PLEASE READ THE MESSAGE BELOW SO YOU DON'T GET CONFUSED LATER ON!**_

 _ **Sorry guys for the late update. I was trying to give you at least two uploaded chapters at the same time, maybe even three, but I only was able to get through part of the seventh chapter since I have a lot planned for that, but then again, knowing how fickle the mind of an author is, it wouldn't be such a surprise that the story went in a completely different direction, so when i say this, don't count on it...DARYL DIXION AND THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL WALKING DEAD CREW HAS HIGH POTENTIAL IN SHOWING UP IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! Like I said, things can change so don't quote me on that, and he most likely won't be written about for too long, just like a glimpse and go. They also do not meet up (like they don't meet Sakura yet, they're still miles apart) I'm just putting them there to clear up on where the timeline is and how it's going to go because even though the canon will still be relatively the same (until a certain point because it really wouldn't be my type of fan fiction if it went line by line) the overall time it takes to do these things will be considerable different, and I will continue to give you glimpses to clear up on where the crew is as Sakura goes through this new life, and also to give you little tastes of the original crew because God knows that when I read other Walking Dead fanfics and they ale too long to give me m fix, I sometimes can't hold myself back from skipping ahead. Oh! There's also he fact that I changed Sakura's backstory quite a bit, so don't be surprised when you hear certain things that are unfamiliar. But anyways, sorry for this long documentary, please go on and read. Enjoy!**_

 _ **PLEASE READ THE MESSAGE ABOVE SO THAT YOU DON'T GET CONFUSED LATER ON!**_

 **-The undead's mobility comes from the brain**

Stabbing the heart, lungs, or any other typical fatal injury never stopped the undead from moving towards their meal. Sakura dispatched limbs, knifed them in various places, even dislodged their head, but it was still "alive". She would need one of their heads to study it.

Sakura had finally reached her destination and quickly scouted out the place, and as expected, the place was swarming with the undead.

 _ **'About sixty clones will do, three for each floor'**_

Sakura nodded in agreement and began the hand signs. Multiple "poofs" sounded and suddenly, there were more than one Sakura standing in the clearing. They nodded to her and dashed towards the building. The undead instantly became riled. All but three of the cloned ran up the side of the walls and into the broken windows.

 _'We're going to have to fix this place up'_

To occupy the time, Sakura sat in a familiar style taught to her by one of her favorite surrogate brothers, and stretched her senses and chakra. Over time, the dread she felt when detecting the undead had lessened to a chill down her spine. She must've been sitting there for quite a while, she opened her eyes and the clones were already gathering the bodies by the fours and taking them into the woods to be burned.

 _'One step done, tons to go'_

 ** _'Let's look around first'_**

She walked towards the building and was hit flu force with the stench of rotten flesh and death, much heavier than when she was up wind.

 _'Been awhile since I've smelt it'_

 ** _'Which is a good thing'_**

Sakura continued towards the tall building, excitement for the knowledge she could gain from it, but for some reason, as she got closer and closer, her footsteps felt heavier and heavier, slowing down to the point where she stopped moving all together.

Inner sighed.

 ** _'Saku-chan?'_**

 _'Do you think I can do it?'_

Being her Inner, she knew exactly what Outer was referring to.

 _ **'Easily'**_ Inner replied truthfully.

Sakura continued on as if she didn't hear her.

 _'I mean...if i do this, take people in, all these people counting on me, and all these lives in my hands...maybe I should give the leadership role to someone else, let them lead'_

Inner shook her head.

 ** _'No. That means having to explain every little thing we do, especially if we do something out of the ordinary.'_**

 _'You think we'll have to use out ninja prowess?'_

It was more of a resigned, statement than a question.

 _ **'Until we find other ninjas, maybe they're hiding or something' she shrugged. 'But some way, some how we'll have to use it and be seen using it'**_

Sakura ran a hand through her long hair.

 _'Think we should risk that? It might come back to bite us in the-no stretch that- we're Team 7, it_ _ **will**_ _come back to bite us in the ass'_

Once again, Inner shrugged.

 _ **'We'll cross that budge when we get here, but remember Sakura, they need us, not the other way around'**_

Sakura agreed with that and continued on with lighter steps. The first things she noticed was once again the putrid snell of decaying flesh. Sakura pulled the collar of her shirt over her nose to filter out the smell.

 _'First things first, let's get this place cleaned up'_

Inner hummed in agreement.

X

XX

Naruto

The Walking Dead

XX

X

The clones had come back from the burnings of the bodies and started the clean up: wiping blood splatters from the walls, scraping brain matter from the roofs and in hard to reach crevices. They even took a couple of sakura's woods scented, used to calm fried nerves, and lit them. They took found clothes and washed the floors, flying up and down the hallways on their hands and knees, and an hour later, the building was clean, not homey (she'd have to do some stealing for that), but clean nonetheless.

The Sun was already setting, and the sky lighting up in brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds. Sakura climbed up to the roof, and seeing a lone undead there, liked it off. A resounding "splat" was heard, but Sakura paid it no mind, too entranced by the oddly beautiful sunset. Sakura sat on the edge of the building and just watched.

 _'There's something different about this sunset'_

Inner shrugged.

 _ **'You're free'**_

Sakura, taken aback, asked her what she meant. Once again, Inner shrugged. The mental laid on her back in her minds cape with her hands behind her head. one leg bent with the other lightly bouncing over it, and enjoyed the display.

 _ **'Home hasn't been**_ _home_ _ **in a long time Sakura, you and I both know that. It's why instead of immediately thinking of finding a way home, the first thought was to save this world's humanity. I mean...you ca chalk it up to a senesce of duty, but we'd both know that wouldn't be true'**_

And as much as it pained and burned Sakura to admit, she knew Inner was right. Home hadn't been home, it had lost the ties keeping her there, and the only thing that place had were bad memories and ghosts, but here, here she had a brand new slate. No one knew Sakura Haruno: _strongest kunoichi in history_ and _war veteran_. No one had to know what she had to do, what she had seen and lived through in order to be here today.

She was free.

A breeze blew by, and though it was a far cry from Konoha's fresh breeze, it made the experience all the more sweet.

X

XX

Naruto

The Walking Dead

XX

X

Even as night fell, Sakura did not sleep. Adrenaline and excitement too pumped in her blood stream for her to do so. So many things she could tinker with. So many experiments she could do. So many _possibilities_. One of her clones had found the library/ archive and she cracked down.

 _ **'Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait'**_

Sakura blinked in confusion.

 _ **'Like you said before, as of right now, this world is unknown, there is no Atlanta, Georgia on the Elemental Nation's map. This is a new territory, so we have to be cautious-'**_

 _'Which means I have o get some good sleep in, eat properly, and take better care of myself, correct?'_

 _ **'Yes, but'**_ , Inner shrugged suggestively _**'you know you can always do that all the time, instead of staying up for two weeks straight' she gave Sakura a flat look.**_

Sakura rolled her eyes with an annoyed sigh.

 _'It's not like I do it on purpose, time just gets away from me...and Hayate-sensei needed it!'_

 _ **'Alright, let's pretend that was the only time.'**_ Sakura's eye twitched _ **'I know he needed the help, but you overworked ourself and passed out cold right outside his door, and not even I could revive you. he had to use smelling salts to rouse you-'**_

 _'I know but-'_

 _ **'And that's not the only thing, you neglected to eat properly, only popping food pills in your mouth!'**_

Sakura sighed in defeat.

 _'Alright, I was in the wrong. I'll go out and catch something to eat and get some sleep. Satisfied?'_

Inner smirked smugly.

 _ **'Very'**_

There were many interesting cases like the cancer one. It seemed like so far, this world's advancement when it came to medication wasn't comparable to the Nation's. They had found the cure for such a terminal disease years ago.

 _ **'Keep going'**_ Inner encouraged.

She read on, absorbing every word she read and Inner tucking the information into small compartment in her head. From what she read so far, this world's plant were almost parallel to the ones back in hers, but what she noticed was missing, something almost essential to ninja unless you were Gai and Lee: chakra. None of the books she had read had references to usage of chakra.

 ** _'Well no wonder they haven't yet found a cure for something like cancer. We were able to because of chakra, This also cements the fact that there are-'_**

 _'No shinobi here'_ Sakura finished.

A pang went through Sakura's heart.

'The only ninja' she sighed 'Trading one burden for another'

'But which would you rather carry?'

They both knew the answer. so Sakura didn't both answering. Sakura closed the last book she read for the night and stretched out with a yawn. She looked outside the lone window.

Different constellations.

 _'Something to study in my free time'_

 ** _'Let's go eat! I'm starving'_**

Sakura hummed in agreement and stood from he chair.

 _ **'Let's find us a deer and cook us up some venison!'**_

Sakura shrugged. Most likely won't find any a this time of night, but there was no harm in trying. Plus, that actually did sound pretty good right now. She jumped out the window and into the woods.

X

 _The sky was blood red._

 _Fire burned everywhere._

 _And her senses were on overdrive: smoke obscured her vision and clogged her nose, along with he strong smell of blood and burned skin. Her body sore from some unknown beating. She could taste the iron on her tongue, and her ears were_ _ **ringing**_ _from the human scream resounding in the air, but no one was_ _ **there**_ _. She ran into houses, buildings where she thought she heard them, but no matter where she looked, she found no one. She spun in circles, desperately trying to find where it was coming from._

 _Sakura turned towards the Hokage Monument, but instead of seeing the Kages, she saw five familiar faces. The ground began to shake as if there were an earthquake and the faces began to crumble. The ground beneath her got the same treatment, and the next thing she knew was she was falling. She landed on her back and the hole she fell through began to close._

 _Darkness_

 _Sakura stood up quickly-practically scrambled to her feet- and spun in circles, desperately trying to find an exit fem the never ending darkness surrounding her, but there was none._

 _She was in the darkness._

 _Alone._

 _Sakura screamed._

X

 _ **'...ura...kura...Sakura!'**_

Sakura jerked forward from her makeshift bed and wretched up the venison she was lucky enough to cook up hours ago.

 _'All for naught'_ she thought distantly.

 _ **'We're okay Saku-chan. We're okay'**_

Inner sent a wave of calming chakra towards her frazzled nerves. She continued to upheave her stomach contents, even when there were only stomach acids left and her throat burned. Once her body stopped its instinctive response reactions, she flopped back on her belly, too tired and fed up with the situation to bother wiping her mouth. Inner took control and did it for her.

 ** _'...Another one?'_** Inner asked just to fill the silence.

Sakura grunted tiredly. Inner walked down Sakura's dream scape hall and reviewed Sakura's dream.

 _'It's weird how I'm the only one seeing it'_

 _ **'Mhmm'**_ Inner responded absentmindedly.

As she finished watching, she sighed. It was quid after that, around her and in her head. Sakura's hand subconsciously fingered the beautiful glass necklace. The trinket shaped like the kanji word for love. Her body slumped and a small smile adjourned her face in remembrance to who gave it to her. There were so many good memories attached to the necklace, and because of that, because of the good memories, it hurt. Hurt because they were only good _memories._

And she could never live them again.

 **PLEASE READ THIS, THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT!**

 **So to ask some things...first and foremost what do you think of this chapter? Comments? Also, that dream Sakura had, what do you think those five familiar face on the Hokage monument are? Take a guess, you should get at least three of them right. To address the things where Inner took over Sakura's body to wipe the bile off her mouth, I bet some of you were probably wondering why Inner never took control before to stop Sakura from being reckless. You'll see why she doesn't do that often as the story progresses. And lastly, that necklace, who do you think gave it to her, their relationship, and what happened to them?**

 **And to all my supporters...I LOVE YOU!**


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